CAN THO UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF EDUCATION ENGLISH DEPARTMENT AN INVESTIGATION ON THE USE OF PICTURES IN TEACHING ENGLISH VOCABULARY TO HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS B A Thesis Field of study: English Language Teaching Supervisor: Tran Thi Chau Pha, M.Ed Researcher: Lam Hong Chi Code: 7086620 Class: NN0852A2 Can Tho, April 2012 An investigation on the use of pictures in teaching English vocabulary to high school students Acknowledgements First of all, I wish to send my deep gratitude to the English Department who gave me an opportunity to carry out this research paper and permitted me to work with my supervisor, Ms Tran Thi Chau Pha I would like to thank all of my teachers in the English Department, Can Tho University for their encouragements Especially, I would like to express my special thanks to my supervisor, Ms Tran Thi Chau Pha, for her support and guidance throughout my thesis writing It is not my success without her valuable comments, suggestions and corrections Besides, I am sincerely thankful to Mr Nguyen Thien Nhiem, my supervisor for my teaching practicum at Chau Van Liem High School and all students of the class 10A2 and 10A3 for their cooperation and assistance during my study In addition, I really want to send my sincere thanks to all my friends who gave me a lot of encouragement, especially to Dao Thi Doan Trang who helped me collect the data for this study Last but not least, I would love to send my special love to my family and my boyfriend who always supported me during the time I conducted the thesis Your contribution is important Thank you all for your help and support Lam Hong Chi Supervisor: Tran Thi Chau Pha i Lam Hong Chi-7086620 An investigation on the use of pictures in teaching English vocabulary to high school students Abstract Vocabulary plays an important role in learning foreign language It supports students in learning other skills such as reading, writing, listening and speaking There have been many techniques in teaching vocabulary including giving explanations, examples and using pictures (Duong, 2005; Nation, 1990) This paper aims to study the use of pictures in learning vocabulary to high school students Using pictures to teach vocabulary is one of the most popular methods used as part of learning and teaching English Through the use of pictures in teaching vocabulary, teachers can help their students learn new words effectively and remember the words longer The paper focuses on students’ attitudes and perceptions toward using pictures in learning vocabulary and how effectively students can learn vocabulary with pictures The study was conducted from February to the middle of April, 2012 in Chau Van Liem High School with the participation of 45 Grade 10 students This was an experimental research with two instruments: a twenty-one-item questionnaire of five-point scale to know students’ attitudes on the use of pictures in learning vocabulary, classroom teaching and vocabulary tests The data results from questionnaire and tests were treated via SPSS 17.0 and Excel program The results showed that the students liked using pictures in learning vocabulary and had a positive attitude towards the benefits of this technique Supervisor: Tran Thi Chau Pha ii Lam Hong Chi-7086620 An investigation on the use of pictures in teaching English vocabulary to high school students Table of contents Acknowledgements i Abstract ii Table of contents iii List of tables vi List of figures vi CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION I Rationale II Research aims and questions III Hypothesis IV The significance of the thesis V Organization of the thesis CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW I Vocabulary .4 Definition The important role of vocabulary in teaching and learning English How to make vocabulary teaching and learning effective Techniques in teaching English vocabulary II Pictures- an effective teaching aid of presenting new words Definition Types of pictures The use of pictures Supervisor: Tran Thi Chau Pha iii Lam Hong Chi-7086620 An investigation on the use of pictures in teaching English vocabulary to high school students The advantages and disadvantages of pictures used III Testing The important role of testing Vocabulary tests 10 IV Related studies on the use of pictures 11 CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 14 I Research design .14 II Participants 14 III Instruments 14 Questionnaire 14 Vocabulary tests 15 IV Research procedures 16 The questionnaire 16 Vocabulary tests 16 CHAPTER 4: DATA RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 18 I Data results 18 Overview of questionnaire analysis 18 Vocabulary tests analysis 21 II Discussion on the results of the study .23 Students’ attitudes and perceptions towards using pictures in learning vocabulary 23 Using pictures help students learn vocabulary more effectively 24 CHAPTER 5: IMPLICATIONS, LIMITATIONS AND SUGGESTIONS 26 I Pedagogical implications .26 II Limitations .27 Supervisor: Tran Thi Chau Pha iv Lam Hong Chi-7086620 An investigation on the use of pictures in teaching English vocabulary to high school students III Suggestions for further research 27 IV Conclusion .27 REFERENCES vii APPENDICES x Appendix .xi Appendix xv Appendix xix Supervisor: Tran Thi Chau Pha v Lam Hong Chi-7086620 An investigation on the use of pictures in teaching English vocabulary to high school students LIST OF TABLES Table 1: Clusters of the questionnaire 13 Table 2: Reliability Coefficient of the questionnaire 15 Table 3: Descriptive statistics of students’ perceptions and attitudes on the use of pictures 16 Table 4: Descriptive statistics of students’ perceptions and attitudes on the use of pictures 16 Table 5: The changes in some items of questionnaires 17 Table 6: The mean score of vocabulary tests 18 LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: The mean score of pre and post-questionnaire 17 Figure 2: Percentage of marks in the first test 19 Figure 3: Percentage of marks in the second test 19 Figure 4: Percentage of marks in the third test 20 Supervisor: Tran Thi Chau Pha vi Lam Hong Chi-7086620 An investigation on the use of pictures in teaching English vocabulary to high school students REFERENCES Andrew, W (Ed.) (1989) Picture for language learning Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Azlina Yunus, N (Ed.) (1981) Preparing and using aids for English Language Teaching Kuala Lumpur: Oxford University Press Baumann, J F., Kame‘enui, E J., & Ash, G E (2003) Research on vocabulary instruction: Voltaire redux Handbook of Research on Teaching the English Language Arts, 752-785 Becker, W C (1977) Teaching reading and language to the disadvantaged – What we have learned from field research Harvard Educational Review, 47, 518-543 Bloomfield, L (Ed.) (1993) Language London:Allen & Unwin Carter, R (Ed.) (1998) Vocabulary: applied linguistic perspectives New York: Routledge Davis, F B (1942) Two new measures of reading ability Journal of Educational Psychology, 33, 365-372 Duong, O (Ed.) (2005) English teaching methodology: teaching the what Can tho: Can Tho university Shinta, E.P (2006) Teaching English vocabulary by using pictures and songs to young learners at TK Kalpataru Bintaro Gunadarma University Gairns, R., & Redman, S (Eds.) (1992) Working with words: a guide to teaching and learning vocabulary Cambridge: Cambridge University Press George, D., & Mallery, P (Eds.) (2003) SPSS for windows step by step: a simple guide and reference (fourth ed.) Boston: Allyn & Bacon Gerlach, V., & Emily, D (Eds.) (1980) Teaching and Media a Systematic Approach (second ed.) New Jersey: Prentice Hall Supervisor: Tran Thi Chau Pha vii Lam Hong Chi-7086620 An investigation on the use of pictures in teaching English vocabulary to high school students Greenwood, S C (2002) Making words matter: Vocabulary study in the content areas The Clearing House, 75, 258-263 Harmer, J (Ed.) (1993) The practice of English language teaching (third ed.): Longman group UK limited Harmer, J (Ed.) (2001) The practice of English language teaching (third ed.) London: Longman Hatch, E., & Brown, C (Eds.) (1995) Vocabulary, semantics and language education Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Hill, D A (Ed.) (1990) Visual impact: Creative language learning through pictures: Essex: Longman Group UK Limited Joklova, K (2009) Using pictures in teaching vocabulary to primary school children Masaryk Joklová, K (2009) Using pictures in teaching vocabulary to children at primary school Masaryk University Leny, N (2006) Teaching vocabulary through pictures to the kindergarten students Jakarta: Islamic University Madsen, H S (Ed.) (1983) Techniques in testing (first ed.) New York: Oxford University Press Mc Carthy, M (Ed.) (1992) Vocabulary Oxford: Oxford University Press Mckenkchnie, L (Ed.) (1980) Webster new twentieth century dictionary unabridge (second ed.) William Collins Publisher Betty, M.B (1973) Look Here!, Visual Aids In Language Teaching London: essential language- Teach Series, 13- 31 Nation, I S P (Ed.) (1990) Teaching and learning vocabulary New York: Heinle & Heinle Nattinger, J (Ed.) (1988) Some current trends in vocabulary teaching London: Longman Supervisor: Tran Thi Chau Pha viii Lam Hong Chi-7086620 An investigation on the use of pictures in teaching English vocabulary to high school students Nguyen, T (2010) Atttidudes and perceptions of high school students and teachers on the use of eliciting techiniques in English vocabulary lessons Can Tho: Can Tho University Nunnally, J C (Ed.) (1978) Psychometric theory (second ed.) New York: McGrawHill Pressley, M (1977) Pictures, partial picture, and young children's partial prose learning Journal of educational psychology 69, 473-480 Samuels, S J (1970) Effects of pictures on learning to read, comprehension and attitudes Review of educational research, 40, 397-407 Saville, M., & Troike, M (1984) What really matters in second language learning for academic achievement TESOL Quarterly, 199-219 Szyke, B (Ed.) (1981) Using pictures as teaching aids (Vol XIX): English teaching forum Thornbury, S (Ed.) (2004) How to teach vocabulary: Essex: Pearson Education Limited Whipple, G (Ed.) (1925) The twenty-fourth yearbook of the national society for the study of education: report of the national committee on reading Bloomington: Public school publishing Wilkins, D (Ed.) (1972) Linguistics in language teaching London: Edward Arnold Wright, A (Ed.) (1990) Pictures for Language Learning Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Wright, A., & Haleem, S (Eds.) (1996) Visuals for the language classroom: Longman group UK limited Supervisor: Tran Thi Chau Pha ix Lam Hong Chi-7086620 An investigation on the use of pictures in teaching English vocabulary to high school students CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY In this chapter, I will present the research design, description of participants and instruments and research procedures I Research design In order to find out high school students’ attitudes and perceptions on the use of pictures in teaching English vocabulary and how well students can remember the words which they were learnt by pictures, an experimental research was conducted The data were collected by the means of three vocabulary tests and questionnaires for students II Participants The participants in this research involved forty-five tenth graders at Chau Van Liem high school, Vietnam All of them have learnt English for five years They were randomly chosen to be the subjects of the study for two reasons Firstly, the students were taught vocabulary in each lesson such as reading, listening, speaking for each unit lesson Secondly, it is convenient to work with them during my two-month practicum at this school III Instruments The instruments of the research consist of pre-questionnaire, post-questionnaire and three vocabulary tests Questionnaires In this research, two kinds of questionnaires consisting of pre-questionnaire and post-questionnaire were used Both of them included twenty-one items The prequestionnaire was employed to investigate students’ attitudes and perceptions towards the use of pictures in teaching and learning English vocabulary; and, the post-questionnaire was used to find out students’ opinions after they were taught new words by pictures The questionnaires were partly adapted from Nguyen (2010) Supervisor: Tran Thi Chau Pha, M.Ed 14 Lam Hong Chi-7086620 An investigation on the use of pictures in teaching English vocabulary to high school students They were also partly designed based on Samuels (1970) and Pressley (1977) The items of the questionnaires were grouped into four clusters: (1) students’ perceptions on the importance of vocabulary, (2) students’ attitudes and perceptions on the use of pictures, (3) students’ perceptions on the benefits of pictures in learning vocabulary, (4) students’ perceptions on the drawbacks of pictures All items were arranged in a random order as shown in Table Table 1: Clusters of the questionnaire Cluster Content Items Students’ perceptions on the importance of 1,3 vocabulary Students’ attitudes and perceptions on 2,4,6,8 pictures in learning vocabulary Students’ perceptions on the benefits of 5,7,9,12,13,15,17,18,19,20 pictures Students’ perceptions on the drawbacks of 10,11,14,16,21 pictures The questionnaire was designed using a five-point scale The respondents had to rate the item on a scale from one to five corresponding to the answer that they agree or disagree with each statement (1=strongly disagree, 2=disagree, 3=neutral, 4=agree, 5=strongly agree) Vocabulary tests There are three vocabulary tests used in total including twenty-seven items which were sorted into multiple choice completions and multiple choice paraphrases Two types of tests were chosen because they help students see the full meaning of words by providing natural contexts The tests were designed on the basis of the types suggested by Madsen (1983) Besides, they were verified by my teaching practicum supervisor, Mr Nguyen Thien Nhiem to ensure the reliability and validity of the tests Supervisor: Tran Thi Chau Pha, M.Ed 15 Lam Hong Chi-7086620 An investigation on the use of pictures in teaching English vocabulary to high school students before they were delivered to students Each statement consisted of four options with only one correct answer Participants were asked to select the correct answer by circling it IV Research procedures The questionnaires Before the questionnaires were administered in the main study, a pilot was conducted with 60 tenth-grade students The reliability of the questionnaire was 802 Therefore, this data collection instrument was quite acceptable (George & Mallery, 2003; Nunnally, 1978) In the pilot survey, some missing items were returned due to the unclear format and the lack of guiding information Therefore, the instruction and format of the questionnaire were revised to make it clearer The final Vietnamese version of the questionnaire was delivered to 45 students which took them about 10 minutes to complete Instructions were carefully given to make sure the participants clearly understood before they completed the questionnaires Finally, the data collected from the questionnaires were run by SPSS program 17.0 in order to find out the students’ attitudes and perceptions about (1) the importance of pictures in teaching and learning vocabulary (2) the benefits and drawbacks of pictures Vocabulary tests The tests were designed with multiple choice types Each test was administered after each unit lesson in order to discover how well students could the vocabulary tests when they were taught new words with pictures Specifically, the first test was delivered to students in the third week; the second one was administered in the fourth week; the last one was sent to students in the fifth week of my teaching practicum It took them approximately ten minutes to complete Before doing the tests, they were Supervisor: Tran Thi Chau Pha, M.Ed 16 Lam Hong Chi-7086620 An investigation on the use of pictures in teaching English vocabulary to high school students told the purpose of the study, and given details of how to respond to the tests In addition, all the instructions of the test were explained in Vietnamese to make sure students comprehend what they would in order that they could finish the tests completely without misunderstanding Finally, the data gained from the vocabulary tests were subjected to Excel program so as to find out the results of the tests that students did Supervisor: Tran Thi Chau Pha, M.Ed 17 Lam Hong Chi-7086620 An investigation on the use of pictures in teaching English vocabulary to high school students CHAPTER 4: DATA RESULTS AND DISCUSSION This chapter consists of two main parts In the first part, the research results from the questionnaires and tests are presented In the second one, I will discuss the two research questions which have been mentioned in the first chapter I Data results Students’ attitudes between pre- and post-questionnaires The questionnaire for students was designed to explore high school students’ attitudes and perceptions on the use of pictures in learning vocabulary The total number of questionnaires collected was 45 and the reliability reported was at an acceptable value with α = 814 (George & Mallery, 2003; Nunnally, 1978) The result of the scale was shown in the Table Table 2: Reliability Coefficient of the questionnaire Number of items Cronbach’s Alpha 21 814 In this research, both pre-questionnaire and post-questionnaire were used The detail of each one is described in the part below 1.1 Pre-questionnaire The total mean score of pre-questionnaire was at 3.45 It means that students had a tendency to agree with all the statements presented in the questionnaire Particularly, they highly agreed that vocabulary plays a significant role in learning English with the mean score of 4.0 (cluster 1) Students’ attitudes and perceptions on pictures and their benefits were not very high (cluster with the mean score of 3.48 and cluster with the mean score of 3.6) In terms of the drawbacks of pictures, students were hardly aware of their limitations with the mean score of 3.2 (Table 3) Supervisor: Tran Thi Chau Pha, M.Ed 18 Lam Hong Chi-7086620 An investigation on the use of pictures in teaching English vocabulary to high school students Table 3: Descriptive statistics of students’ perceptions and attitudes on the use of pictures of pre-questionnaire Cluster N Minimum Maximum Mean 1 40 2.50 5.00 4.08 40 2.50 5.00 3.48 40 2.80 5.00 3.60 40 1.00 5.00 3.20 1.2 Post-questionnaire In the post-questionnaire, the total mean score was at 3.63 That is to say students almost agreed with all the statements presented in the questionnaire for them Specifically, they nearly strongly agreed that vocabulary is very important in studying language and they love to be taught new words by pictures with the mean score approximately 4.0 (cluster and cluster 2) Nevertheless, their perceptions on the advantages of pictures were above average value with the mean score of 3.9 (cluster 3) while their awareness of the disadvantages of pictures were quite low (cluster with the mean score of 3.2) The mean score of students’ beliefs on the use of pictures was presented in Table Table 4: Descriptive statistics of students’ perceptions and attitudes on the use of pictures of post-questionnaire Cluster N Minimum Maximum Mean 40 2.50 5.00 4.08 40 3.00 5.00 3.95 40 3.20 5.00 3.82 40 1.00 4.40 3.37 Supervisor: Tran Thi Chau Pha, M.Ed 19 Lam Hong Chi-7086620 An investigation on the use of pictures in teaching English vocabulary to high school students In summary, the mean scores of post-questionnaire in cluster 2, and are higher than the mean score of pre-questionnaire as illustrated in Figure Students’ attitudes towards the importance of vocabulary remain exactly the same 4.5 3.5 2.5 Mean Mean 1.5 0.5 Cluster Cluster Cluster Cluster Figure 1: The mean score of pre and post-questionnaire Especially, there is a dramatic alteration on items 2, 4, 7, The changes were presented in table below Table 5: The changes in some items of questionnaires Items Mean Mean 2 3.55 4.03 3.10 4.05 3.45 4.05 3.58 4.00 As can be seen in Table 5, students’ attitudes and perceptions on pictures and their benefits changed after they had been taught new words by pictures Specifically, there was a sharp increase in the number of students who liked learning new words by pictures with the mean score around 3.5 in pre-questionnaire up to about 4.0 in post-questionnaire Supervisor: Tran Thi Chau Pha, M.Ed 20 Lam Hong Chi-7086620 An investigation on the use of pictures in teaching English vocabulary to high school students Students’ performance through vocabulary tests analysis With regard to the topic of the use of pictures in teaching vocabulary, three vocabulary tests consisting of twenty-seven items were administered to forty-five students of class 10A2 after each unit lesson to discover the effectiveness of pictures via the result of the tests The data were analyzed and calculated using Excel program In order to calculate the average score of each test, the following formula was used: M = S/N M: mean score of each test S: total score of each test N: total number of test (45) After analyzing the data, the result was found as in the table 6: Table 6: The mean score of vocabulary tests Test No of items M 6.73 11 9.97 7.28 The table revealed that students’ mean score of each test was quite high with the mean score of 6.73 out of for the first test, 9.97 out of 11 for the second one, and 7.28 out of for the last one Specifically, the results of each test were shown in figures below Figure illustrates the students’ mean score of the first test Supervisor: Tran Thi Chau Pha, M.Ed 21 Lam Hong Chi-7086620 An investigation on the use of pictures in teaching English vocabulary to high school students TEST 90% 80% 80% 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 16% 20% 10% 4% 0% score 6-7 score score Figure 2: Percentage of score in test As can be seen from Figure 1, there were only 4% of students had the lowest score, 16% had highest score and the other score accounted for 80% However, there was a double increase on the highest score in the second test (See Figure 3) TEST 66% 70% 60% 50% 40% 31% 30% 20% 13% 10% 0% score 9-10 score 11 score Figure 3: Percentage of score in test In this test, the lowest score was rather higher than the first one, with 13 % Nevertheless, the percentage of students obtained highest score increased up to 31% Supervisor: Tran Thi Chau Pha, M.Ed 22 Lam Hong Chi-7086620 An investigation on the use of pictures in teaching English vocabulary to high school students The other score was 56% Especially, the highest score kept increasing in the last test (See Figure 4) TEST 60% 50% 47% 49% 6-7 score score 40% 30% 20% 10% 4% 0% score Figure 4: Percentage of score in test As can be seen in Figure 3, in the third test the lowest score accounted for 4%, highest score 49% and the other score 47% II Discussion on the results of the study The aim of this research was to explore the use of pictures in teaching English vocabulary to tenth-grade students at Chau Van Liem high school in Vietnam This study hypothesized that most of the students liked learning new words with pictures; moreover, pictures will also help students learning vocabulary more effectively The findings of this research are discussed with respect to the research questions posed in the research and the hypothesis Also, the use of pictures in teaching new words is taken into account These results will be compared with those of previous studies such as Leny (2006), Shinta (2006) and Joklová (2009) Students’ attitudes and perceptions towards using pictures in learning vocabulary The first research question emphasized students’ attitudes and perceptions toward using pictures in learning vocabulary The results obtained from pre-questionnaire Supervisor: Tran Thi Chau Pha, M.Ed 23 Lam Hong Chi-7086620 An investigation on the use of pictures in teaching English vocabulary to high school students and post-questionnaire showed that the majority of students had positive attitudes toward pictures (M1 = 3.50 and M2 = 3.95, respectively) Also, they liked to be taught new words by pictures (with the mean of pre-questionnaire M1=3.10 and postquestionnaire, M2=4.05) Especially, most of the students agreed that using pictures in teaching vocabulary could make their class more active and enjoyable (M1=3.73 and M2=4.15, respectively) These statistics from pre-questionnaire indicated that students’ attitudes and perceptions of pictures are neutral (with the mean score on pre-questionnaire, M1=3.50, M1=3.10 and M1=3.73) The results did not completely support my first original hypothesis “Most of the students like learning English vocabulary with pictures” in pre-questionnaires However, after two months studying vocabulary with pictures, they changed their opinions about the use of pictures; they had positive attitudes on them (M2=3.95, M2=4.05, M2=4.15) These outcomes are consistent with the previous research findings in Joklová (2009), Leny (2006) and Shinta (2006), which indicated that pictures are really useful teaching aids in teaching vocabulary because they could help students learn the words in an interesting and effective way Using pictures help students remember the words better The second research question was about whether using pictures could help students learn vocabulary better or not The results of three vocabulary tests illustrated that none of the students was under or at average level It means that most of students did the tests well with quite high score Specifically, there were 7% students who had over average score, 61% who got good score and 32% students for excellent score in total This has proved that using pictures in teaching vocabulary brought really good outcome Besides, when analyzing and comparing the score of each test, it has been found that a number of students who achieved the highest score increased significantly after each test In the first one, only 16% students reached the highest score; however, there was a double growth in the second one And, the excellent score rose up to approximately 49% in the last test That is to say, day by day students made progress dramatically in learning new words due to the use of pictures Supervisor: Tran Thi Chau Pha, M.Ed 24 Lam Hong Chi-7086620 An investigation on the use of pictures in teaching English vocabulary to high school students Especially, they remembered most of the words they have learnt However, not all new words can be taught by using pictures, especially abstract words because it is rather difficult to demonstrate the meaning by pictures For example, “mournful” is not easy to explain by pictures Students may get the meaning of “sad” or “unhappy”, but it has the meaning of “very or extremely sad”, exactly Therefore, it should be a combination using pictures and other techniques such as explanation or examples, if necessary In that case, picture will maximize its use and it will become one of the most effective teaching aids in teaching vocabulary Supervisor: Tran Thi Chau Pha, M.Ed 25 Lam Hong Chi-7086620 An investigation on the use of pictures in teaching English vocabulary to high school students CHAPTER 5: IMPLICATIONS, LIMITATIONS AND SUGGESTIONS In the previous chapter, an analysis of data and discussions of the results were presented In this chapter, I will present some pedagogical implications, limitations of the study, suggestions for further research and conclusion I Pedagogical implications The results of the current research indicate that students are very interested in learning new words with pictures Also, the effectiveness of using pictures in teaching English words has been revealed For that reason, certain pedagogical implications are drawn to discuss In the first place, considering vocabulary, the students were aware of the significance of vocabulary in learning English language It means they had a positive attitude in learning vocabulary (Nguyen, 2011) In terms of preference of pictures, almost students like the use of pictures, and they had a high agreement with their benefits That is to say using pictures in vocabulary lessons is not only very effective and helpful but also can help students absorb new words rapidly (Leny, 2006) Secondly, on the basis of the data of pre-questionnaire, a large number of students did not realize the effectiveness of pictures used at first Nevertheless, they were aware of it after they had been taught vocabulary by pictures in two months It means that they did not have many opportunities to learn new words with pictures before or the teachers only teach new vocabulary to them by ordinary techniques such as explanations or giving examples Since being taught new words with pictures, the students enjoy learning new vocabulary by this technique pretty much; therefore, teachers should use more pictures in teaching English vocabulary to motivate and interest students in learning new words (Joklova, 2009) More importantly, it has been proved that using pictures in teaching new words are really effective according to descriptive statistics from the results of three vocabulary tests The majority of students did the tests well with very high marks In other words, pictures are appropriate teaching aids for presenting and checking meaning of Supervisor: Tran Thi Chau Pha, M.Ed 26 Lam Hong Chi-7086620 An investigation on the use of pictures in teaching English vocabulary to high school students new vocabulary (Harmer, 2001) Especially, they can assist students in remembering the words longer (Joklova, 2009) So, they should be applied more widely in the field of vocabulary teaching II Limitations In spite of great investment of time and effort in doing the research, there still exist some shortcomings First of all, due to time constraint, the research was limited the number of participants with only 45 tenth-grade students at Chau Van Liem high school Therefore, the findings cannot be generalized Secondly, only in two months of my teaching practicum at high school, I did not have enough time to teach many vocabulary lessons and administer more vocabulary tests It would be more convincing if I had opportunities to so in a longer period of time III Suggestions for further research Based on the results and discussions of this research, there are four aspects that need more investigations in the future First of all, the survey scope should be expanded into many schools and classes for more valid and reliable data Moreover, if time and circumstances allow, researchers should teach more vocabulary lessons to students and design more vocabulary tests so that the findings would be more solid In addition, this study only focused on the use of pictures in teaching vocabulary, there should be further research with a focus on speaking to investigate more findings about the use of pictures Finally, other strategies such as using examples, using synonyms or miming should be studied in order to find out more effective ways in teaching vocabulary to high school students IV.Conclusion It can be concluded from this study that (1) Most students liked learning English vocabulary with pictures and had a positive attitude towards the benefits of pictures used Supervisor: Tran Thi Chau Pha, M.Ed 27 Lam Hong Chi-7086620 An investigation on the use of pictures in teaching English vocabulary to high school students (2) Pictures helped students learn new words better This can be seen from the results that students had approximately 80% correct answers The present research gives a general picture of students’ attitudes and perceptions on the use of pictures and the effectiveness of pictures in learning new words The findings have provided certain implications for EFL teaching and learning vocabulary, particularly in the Mekong Delta of Vietnam For effective English vocabulary lessons teachers should apply pictures in their teaching in order to make the process enjoyable and memorable and help them improve their performance in teaching vocabulary Supervisor: Tran Thi Chau Pha, M.Ed 28 Lam Hong Chi-7086620 ... investigation on the use of pictures in teaching English vocabulary to high school students Nguyen, T (2010) Atttidudes and perceptions of high school students and teachers on the use of eliciting techiniques... investigation on the use of pictures in teaching English vocabulary to high school students motivation and interest They were excellent tools for the demonstration of the meaning, especially regarding... teacher to use pictures in teaching Supervisor: Tran Thi Chau Pha xii Lam Hong Chi-7086620 An investigation on the use of pictures in teaching English vocabulary to high school students new vocabulary